settings1. Who are you?
I’m Matt Frazier, a vegan ultrarunner, blogger, and author.
But I’m not supposed to be a runner. At least, that’s what a physical therapist told me when I asked him why, after running one marathon, I just couldn’t avoid injury long enough to run another.
But I didn’t just want to run another marathon. I wanted to qualify for Boston, which would take running a marathon in 3 hours and 10 minutes or faster. It was the perfect challenge for me, the biggest thing I’d ever dared to go after.
Because my first one had taken me 4 hours and 53 minutes — a whole hour and forty-three minutes slower than the time I needed to get into Boston.
As it turns out, missing by so much was the best thing that ever happened to me. I became obsessed with the idea that I would qualify. Somehow. No matter how long it took. Whatever it took. And before anything else, “whatever it took” meant learning how to set goals, take massive action, and get results.
They say the reason to set a goal is for the person it will make of you. In the seven years it took me to make it to Boston, I changed from a kid who took what life gave me to someone who knows that with an attitude of “no matter what and no matter how long,” I’ll get whatever outcome I set for myself.
More recently, I’ve run a 100-mile ultramarathon and — even more meaningful for me — I’ve accomplished the goal of being able to spend my days doing what I love (which happens not to include working in an office or for someone else).
2. Is it hard?
Yes! Of course it’s hard.
When is the last time you committed to doing something — like not just reading, but also doing something — for 31 straight days, and actually did it? For most people, that’s called hard.
You know what’s easy?
Watching TV.
Eating junk.
Scrolling through Facebook and pressing “Like” when you see that someone you talked to a little bit in high school just had a baby.
This program is not nearly as easy as that is. Most days it’s 2 to 4 pages of reading and an action step. Sometimes that action step takes 5-minutes, other times it’ll take you 30 minutes (and there’s plenty of opportunity to do more if you’re really committed!). Should you wish to go more in-depth, I’ve included links to my favorite articles and tools on the web for most topics.
But of course, here’s the payoff: Although thinking about goals and taking action (sometimes scary action!) to make them happen is hard, it’s not nearly as hard as living with the accumulated regret of a life that’s wasted on distraction is.
And quite frankly, if you got to the end of 31 days — of a program designed to help you take massive action to change your life — and the prevailing feeling was, Hey, that was easy … wouldn’t you be just a little bit disappointed?
3. What can I expect to change?
A lot, I hope! I mean, you’re awesome for even being here to consider buying something that doesn’t promise endless, easy, no-hassle entertainment. But you wouldn’t be reading this if you didn’t have a bigger and better vision for yourself — what you could achieve, what you could create, what you could build if you didn’t just get focused but actually stayed focused — because you had a goal that you just couldn’t stop thinking about.
My hope is that if you go through this program, someone else — someone who you live with, or see every day — will notice you’ve changed, probably before you do. You’ll be more motivated, more confident, more organized, more productive, more committed, more clear on your goals and closer to achieving them, and ultimately more fulfilled and happy with your life than you were before you started.
The downside? You won’t enjoy watching TV as much, and high school acquaintances on Facebook will wonder why you’ve stopped “Liking” their baby pictures. You won’t be that interested in games and other things that are sort of nice to spend a few minutes with now and then to kill some time.
I know it sounds like I’m spinning it so that it seems like a good thing to quit all this stuff, but I’m halfway serious. Committing to change does mean saying goodbye to distractions.
Personally, I think living life intentionally is worth all of that, about a million times over.
Now, a question for you: